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Monday, 8 April 2013

Thatcher is Dead

I couldn't stand the woman, I still can't. I'm not even going to pretend to be sad that she's dead, being Northern, Working Class, Gay and a child of the 80s, my loathing is the stuff of legends.

I'm not going to say nice things about her because she's finally kicked the bucket. There are no nice things to say about her. And it's an insult to her victims to pretend she was even close to a decent human being .

We cannot allow her legacy to be whitewashed, we cannot let the pain she caused be forgotten in a wave nostalgia and Tory rewriting of history, we cannot let her legacy be cast as anything other than the evil it was. We cannot let a wave of pretend grief backed by an unwillingness to speak ill of the dead to become some kind of endorsement of her policies and her politics.

Margaret Thatcher is dead and she was a person who left this world poorer for her time in it, who brought more pain than joy, who caused more suffering than healing and who left scars that will be generations in the healing. In the future I may pull on my dancing shoes and boogie on top of her grave.

But, for now, I can't put on my dancing shoes because Margaret Thatcher isn't my focus and cannot be. She hasn't been a force in politics for years, despite her evil legacy. I have more rage and fury towards the evil of the present - and Cameron and little Cleggy - than the vileness of the past, even if it still hurts us. Dancing shoes later folks, we need to keep our work boots on because we've got a lot more to do - and a lot more to kick - before we have the time and space to dance on the grave.

Now here's hoping she rises from the crypt and takes out Cameron and Cleggy. Then I'll hold a street party. Failing that, let's hope she was buried at crossroads or her ashes scattered over several bodies of water

(Anyone wringing their hands and worrying about the disrespect for the poor old monster, you might want to save it, because we will mock you. Yes yes we will)